There may actually be more people in South Africa than in many parts of Colorado familiar with the name Dan Radiff. That’s because it was in South Africa where the retired Pueblo coach and educator ran a leg on the gold medal-winning 4X100 relay team at the 1996 World Veterans Athletic Association World Games in the 45-50 age division. That might have been another lifetime ago, but the man is still competing.
The gold medal is impressive in its own right. But the 70-year-old Radiff is probably entitled to his own chapter in a record for a slew of accomplishments in both track and field and swimming over the course of the last half-century. The man is a machine. For proof, all you need do is look at his biography in the Greater Pueblo Sports Hall of Fame.
The Pueblo native is the oldest of seven siblings. “I had to help mom put supper on the table each night,” Radiff said in a recent phone interview. Being the oldest child, he also had to help in other ways, too. “I had to hang out the diapers on the line, too.” When you got old enough in the Radiff house, you had a job, he said. But in his freshman year in high school, that changed.
It was the day he came home with a permission slip he needed to get signed in order to play football. At the dinner table, he remembered, “I put it in front of my Dad,” not knowing what reaction—approval, disapproval or silence— might follow.
His dad read the slip, said Radiff. First, there was silence. “He stood up and hit the table as hard as he could.” What followed shocked him. “He said, ‘As long as my son is going out for a sport, this family is going to do all his chores.’” That single note of approval changed the arc of Radiff’s life.
Radiff would go on to not just compete but shine as a three-sport star in high school, winning a total of twelve high school letters. After high school, he did the same at then-Southern Colorado State University, now CSU-Pueblo, playing varsity football and running track for four years.
After college, Radiff took a coaching job at Beulah High School but with a couple of years joined the faculty at Pueblo County High School where he taught and served as assistant football coach and varsity swim coach, both boys and girls teams.
Despite a baptism in coaching when discipline proved one’s mettle, Radiff said his style was different. “When I took over,” he said, “I told them, ‘you’re all athletes… I’m treating you no different.’” Now retired, he coaches swimming with the Pueblo Parks Department. He hasn’t changed. His swimmers today are all “young men and young women.”
For Radiff, athletics and competition, are itches he just can’t scratch. He’s been a competitive athlete since his teens, taking it to the highest levels in any sport he’s in.
Radiff was a defensive back and punt returner for the national champion Pueblo Crusaders semi-pro football team in the 80’s. He played the sport until his late thirties competing with and against athletes half his age. Coach Radiff as he’s regularly called wherever he goes in Pueblo, is still a serious track and field and swimming competitor who holds a few world records in international competition.
Radiff’s name appears often enough to think it might actually be a misprint. It’s not. He’s been named an All-American fifteen straight years as a Sub-Masters and Masters Track Runner. In 2011, he won the 100m, 200m, and 400m races among all age groups at the Master’s World Championships in Sacramento, California. He has represented his country in Australia, Brazil, Italy, Japan, and South Africa.
It’s not so much winning, though that is a benefit, he said. What he appreciates more than the medals is what occurs after the competition. “When we win something and they play the National Anthem,” he said, “The hair on my arms goes up. That’s why I do it.”
He also does what he does, he said, because he gets to meet people from all over the world. Once, in South Africa during apartheid, “We had to go from the lodging to the track with machine gun guards,” he chuckled. “I met Zulu chiefs and have had so many different experiences and I still have friends all over the world.” “We battle each other but when we leave, we hug each other and pray that we’ll survive the next four years.”
Still, one moment stands out among so many. Radiff said it occurred in 1993 when he competed at the World Veterans Championship in Miyazaki, Japan. He and his relay team won two silver medals in the 4X100 and 4X400 relays. But because his team qualified in every event they entered; he was presented with a gold medallion by the Japanese Emperor. “It was the best performance of my life.”
Despite his age, Radiff says he wants to remain working with kids in the Pueblo Parks swimming program. He said, they often remind him of his age—not in a teasing but thoughtful way—when they tell him, ‘My Dad says to tell you ‘hi.’” But it doesn’t stop there. Every now and then they’ll say, “My grandpa says to tell you ‘hi.’ That’s three grandpas I coached back in the day.”
He also has plans to continue competing in various track and swimming events. He knows he won’t come close to his personal best in the 100—a 9.7 time in college. But just seeing friends and competing will be enough.
For a look at Radiff’s Greater Pueblo Sports Hall of Fame bio, visit https://www.pueblogshof.com/index.php/michael-daniel-dan-radiff.
